One Pic – One Fix – One Stroke!

Usually when I return from the annual Myrtle Beach golf trip I don’t touch a club for 7-10 days, primarily because my body feels so beat up from all the rounds and practice balls.  This year was different and I felt pretty fresh.  Not trying to overdo it, I made it a point to stop off at a local course on the way home from work every day this week, and chip and putt for just 15-20 minutes.  My short game is always sharp after the trip and I wanted to keep the feeling.  Then mid-week, Fred, from Team Walmart (AZ guys) sent me a photo stream of pics from our trip and I immediately picked up a flaw in my move that I felt would be an easy fix, and lend itself to more consistent ball striking.

This morning I headed out to my local muni to try the fix on our inside nine.  After just a couple of stretches, no Advil floating through my veins, and no practice balls, I teed up a 9-iron with the fix in play, and rifled it towards the first hole – easy par.  #2 was playing 110 yards and I selected a smooth pitching wedge and drilled it with two hops and into the hole for the second ace of my life.  The first was 31 years ago with a 7-iron – quite a gap.  My last thought before heading off to retrieve and retire the Titleist was, “Who needs a stinkin’ warm up?”

It’s nice when a plan comes together.  Hope your Saturday got off to as good a start as mine did.  When was your last/first hole-in-one?

What Are The Odds?

Golf is a game renown for different outcomes for virtually every stroke, putt, chip, and game situation.  Repeating the same behavior is nearly impossible and the funniest thing happened to me over the last couple of days.  On Friday, I was playing an emergency nine after work at my local muni.  On the par-4 8th hole, I laid up off the tee for position with a 3WD, and placed the shot perfectly in the fairway.  My red Titleist #1 golf ball was clearly marked with two blue dots, but a playing partner mistakenly hit my ball on their second shot.  Yesterday, on the same course, I again took 3WD for position, but this time off the par-4 9th.  Again I piped the shot, and again a different playing partner hit my ball for their second shot.  It was the exact same Titleist #1 with the two blue dots.  What are the odds?

The only other instance that comes to mind was several years ago when I was playing Whitetail Golf Club in Bath, PA and had selected a 7-iron on the 152 yard par-3 11th.  I landed the shot inches from the hole but a significant amount of spin backed the ball off the front of the green and down into a ravine; lost ball.  I re-teed my provisional and changed to a 6-iron.  My shot landed on the back of the green and backed all the way to the front and into the hole for a par and pseudo ace.

Sometimes this is a very strange game.  Any weird repeating outliers ever happen to you?  Please share, thanks!